THE papers and medals of a Battle of Britain Spitfire pilot – who turned up a year after his grieving wife and family had been told he was dead – are to go under the hammer at an auction next month. They are expected to reach in the region of £8,000-£10,000.

Flight Lieutenant Bob Poulton, of Liskeard, was forced to parachute from his Spitfire over Fruges, Northern France, into German hands in March 1944, and was taken to the Stalag Luft 1 prisoner of war camp in Germany.

Bob's son Jeremy, who lives in South Wales, said his late father had been piloting a Spitfire escorting bombers on a raid over Fruges when his engine started to overheat.

Mourning

'He turned to head back towards the coast planning to bail out over the sea, but he had to parachute out at 800ft into a ploughed field,' he said.

While a prisoner, Bob had made good use of his time and compiled a journal of his daily life, also producing dozens of intricate pencil pictures of planes flying overhead, fellow prisoners and the watchtowers. He also wrote poems.

Unaware Bob had been taken prisoner, the RAF thought he was dead and sent a telegram breaking the news to his wife Nancy who spent a year in mourning.

Bob was able to return to the arms of his wife in 1945 after Swiss officials brokered a deal for him to be exchanged with two German prisoners held in Britain.

The auction, at Plymouth Auction Rooms on November 21, includes Bob's Distinguished Flying Cross and The Battle of Britain Clasp, along with an album of photographs from 1939-1945.

Bob died aged 79 at his home in Liskeard in 1998.